‘X-Men: Danger Room Protocols’ Is the Love Letter to the ’90s Series We Didn’t Know We Needed

It’s…it’s perfect

Jared Keller

Jan 6, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuxmouv5_nM

In some respects, we’re living in a golden age for the X-Men. Despite a lull during the mid-2000s, the X-Men movie franchise has enjoyed a revitalization from First Class to 2016’s forthcoming Apocalypse. Wolverine is still one of the most popular comic book characters of all time. Even Deadpool has his own movie.

But despite this sudden flood of mutants, it’s not necessarily the X-Men a certain generation remembers — you know, the generation that watched the Fox animated series from the 1990s. Those insane muscles and brightly colored spandex are the X-Men I grew up with.

That’s where Canadian animator Joel Furtado comes in. An X-Men fan himself, Furtado put together X-Men: Danger Room Protocols, an 18-episode animated web series and love letter to the original mid-90s animated series.

Each episode features “two X-Men running through one of Professor X’s programs,” as well as “some of the X-Men’s deadliest foes,” according to ComicBook.com. The first episode, which will reportedly pit Wolverine and Jean Grey against a group of Sentinels, premieres on YouTube on January 19th.

Sure, the trailer’s a bit rough around the edges, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t the best facsimile of that particular pop culture moment for the X-Men, before black leather and gritty plots conquered the comic book industry, I’ve ever seen. I can’t wait for the final product — and I know I’m not the only one.

h/t ComicBook